urn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entries-eff9becc-b1a3-4cb8-bfb2-619b2a0bfc2eInside System Storage -- by Tony Pearson - Tags - earthquake Inside System Storage -- by Tony Pearson03022017-09-25T03:50:57-04:00IBM Connections - Blogsurn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entry-8f96320c-ab78-434b-8c7d-a84fc265cf6bIBM Japan - Mailbag of Interesting ReactionsTonyPearson120000HQFFactivefalseComment EntriesLikestrue2011-03-24T15:59:27-04:002011-04-07T09:55:17-04:00<p>
My coverage of Japan's earthquake and tsunami got some interesting reactions. This includes my blog posts [<a href="https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/blogs/InsideSystemStorage/entry/earthquakes_in_japan24?lang=en">Earthquakes in Japan</a>] and [<a href="https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/blogs/InsideSystemStorage/entry/japan_and_northern_pacific_three_months_free3?lang=en">Japan and Northern Pacific - Three Months Free</a>].
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Hana Hu from Digitimes has a great summary on [<a href="http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20110318VL202.html">how the Japan earthquake will affect the four major Hard Disk Drive (HDD) manufacturers</a>] that supply IBM and other storage vendors.
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A reader from New Zealand expressed concern some corporate bloggers were [<a href="http://www.freakonomics.com/2011/03/17/was-microsoft-wrong-to-use-the-japanese-earthquake-for-marketing/">using the earthquake for marketing</a>]. He lost someone close to him in Christchurch, and is unable to reach a friend living in Japan, so I am sorry for his loss. I plan to be in Australia and New Zealand to teach a Top Gun class May 15-27, so hopefully I will be able to meet him in person when I am down there.
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Several readers sent me Felix Salmon's [<a href="http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2011/03/14/dont-donate-money-to-japan/">Don't Donate Money to Japan</a>] counter-argument. Here is an excerpt:
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&quot;Earmarking funds is a really good way of hobbling relief organizations and ensuring that they have to leave large piles of money unspent in one place while facing urgent needs in other places. ... Meanwhile, the smaller and less visible emergencies where NGOs can do the most good are left unfunded.
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In the specific case of Japan, there's all the more reason not to donate money. Japan is a wealthy country which is responding to the disaster, among other things, by printing hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of new money.&quot;
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Another reader mentioned that the last surviving American WW-II vet died the same week. WTF? IBM and Japan have been allies for quite a while now, and there is no reason to bring up past wars except to compare the scope and magnitude of the cleanup effort. (<b>Update:</b> Frank Buckles was the last surviving WW-I vet, but also served in WW-II).</p>
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Many readers felt that charity begins at home, and there are plenty of worthy causes right here in the USA to donate to instead. Inspired by last year's movie [<a href="http://www.waitingforsuperman.com/">Waiting for Superman</a>], my girlfriend started a project called [<a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=543520&amp;utm_source=internal&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_content=project&amp;utm_campaign=TellAFriend?utm_source=dc&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=sendfriend">Centers for My Super Stars</a>] for her first grade class on DonorsChoose.org. For those not familiar with this website, DonorsChoose.org uses the cloud to connect school teachers in need of supplies with rich people to donate funds towards these projects. If you want to contribute to her project, [<a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=543520&amp;utm_source=internal&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_content=project&amp;utm_campaign=TellAFriend?utm_source=dc&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=sendfriend">donate here</a>].
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Lastly, readers pointed me to Frank Deford, who said this on [<a href="http://www.npr.org/2011/03/23/134771284/the-sports-curmudgeons-back-just-like-tiki-barber">his weekly spot on National Public Radio</a>]:
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&quot;And speaking of class, there just happens to be a baseball team in Sendai, Japan. The Golden Eagles. Their stadium was severely damaged from the earthquake. Wouldn't you think some of them lug nuts who run American baseball would bring the Golden Eagles and their opponents over to the United States when the Japanese season starts -- play some games over here and raise money to help the Japanese? Wouldn't you think they could just once stop that national pastime stuff and help the international pastime?&quot;
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As you can see, different readers have different opinions on this. We are all on this world together, and both our economy and our ecology are more interconnected than you might think. Let's build a smarter planet.
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<p><img src="http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/resources/InsideSystemStorage/technorati.gif" /><b>technorati tags:</b> <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/IBM" rel="tag">IBM</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/Makuhari" rel="tag">Makuhari</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/Tokyo" rel="tag">Tokyo</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/Datacenter" rel="tag">Datacenter</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/HDD" rel="tag">HDD</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/manufacturers" rel="tag">manufacturers</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/" rel="tag">, </a><a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/New+Zealand" rel="tag">New Zealand</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/Japan" rel="tag">Japan</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/earthquake" rel="tag">earthquake</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/WWII" rel="tag">WWII</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/" rel="tag">, </a><a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/Sendai" rel="tag">Sendai</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/Golden+Eagles" rel="tag">Golden Eagles</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/Frank+Deford" rel="tag">Frank Deford</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/NPR" rel="tag">NPR</a></p>
My coverage of Japan's earthquake and tsunami got some interesting reactions. This includes my blog posts [ Earthquakes in Japan ] and [ Japan and Northern Pacific - Three Months Free ].
Hana Hu from Digitimes has a great summary on [ how the Japan...0419602urn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entries-eff9becc-b1a3-4cb8-bfb2-619b2a0bfc2eInside System Storage -- by Tony Pearson2017-09-25T03:50:57-04:00urn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entry-d9b7ee9a-5a6b-4bc1-879d-2721f302a9e9Japan and Northern Pacific - Three Months FreeTonyPearson120000HQFFactivefalseComment EntriesLikestrue2011-03-19T00:57:05-04:002011-03-19T00:57:05-04:00<p>
IBM announced that it will offer [<a href="http://www-06.ibm.com/jp/news/2011/03/1302.html">three free months of IBM Smart Business Cloud</a>] computing and storage services to government agencies, charitable non-profit organizations, and other organizations involved with reconstruction resulting from the earthquakes and tsunami in Japan and the northern Pacific region.
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With traditional communications down, and many data centers incapacitated, Cloud Computing can be a great way to resume operations. According to the announcement, organizations can submit their requests now until April 30, and the program will run until July 31, 2011. Options include:
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<li>Virtual machine images running 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Linux or Windows.
</li><li>60GB to 2 TB of disk storage per instance.
</li><li>Options for various IBM middleware (DB2, Informix, Lotus, and WebSphere)
</li><li>Rational Application Lifecycle Management and Tivoli Monitoring software
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The offer also includes [<a href="http://lotusliveblog.com/blog/lotuslive.nsf/dx/ibm-japan-offers-free-use-of-lotuslive-during-earthquaketsunami-recovery">LotusLive</a>] Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) for email and online collaboration. For more about LotusLive, see this [<a href="http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/redp4728.html">Red Paper</a>].
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<p><img src="http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/resources/InsideSystemStorage/technorati.gif" /><b>technorati tags:</b> <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/IBM" rel="tag">IBM</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/Japan" rel="tag">Japan</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/Earthquake" rel="tag">Earthquake</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/Tsunami" rel="tag">Tsunami</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/Smart+Business+Cloud" rel="tag">Smart Business Cloud</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/Linux" rel="tag">Linux</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/Windows" rel="tag">Windows</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/DB2" rel="tag">DB2</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/Informix" rel="tag">Informix</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/Lotus" rel="tag">Lotus</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/WebSphere" rel="tag">WebSphere</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/LotusLive" rel="tag">LotusLive</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/SaaS" rel="tag">SaaS</a></p>IBM announced that it will offer [ three free months of IBM Smart Business Cloud ] computing and storage services to government agencies, charitable non-profit organizations, and other organizations involved with reconstruction resulting from the earthquakes...006838urn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entries-eff9becc-b1a3-4cb8-bfb2-619b2a0bfc2eInside System Storage -- by Tony Pearson2017-09-25T03:50:57-04:00